Electrical wiring devices, such as those for making detachable electrical connections, often include a female receptacle and a male plug. Both plugs and receptacles, further, often include a non-conductive housing for holding electrically conductive contacts. In particular, the plug housing typically includes one or more male electrical contact that mate with corresponding female electrical contact in the receptacle housing. Regardless of the number of contacts, however, it is important that the interface between the male and female contacts be extremely rigid. For example, in order to maintain a consistent flow of electric current, or power, through the connector interface, the male and female contacts must not be permitted to move with respect to each other and they should be kept in constant contact with each other. However, because such connectors are typically used in conjunction with power cords or other such movable structures, the connectors are often moved, which increases the probability of disturbing the interface between the male and female contacts.
Some related art connectors include cylindrical plug and receptacle housings each of which houses one or more male and female contact terminals, respectively. The female contact terminals include a receiving part that allows the male contact terminal in the plug housing to be inserted therein to form a tight fit. The female contact terminal is attached to the inside surface of the receptacle housing and is also electrically attached to an electrical conducting element, such as an electrical power wire. Conventional connectors are problematic, however, because to ensure that the two housings stay connected or, more importantly, that the male and female contact members form a sufficient electrical contact, the housings are often provided with an interlocking mechanism, such as complementary threads. One of the housings is then threaded onto the other housing with a twisting motion, which can potentially disturb the orientation of the contact terminals within the housings. Forces other than the manual twisting force generated from connecting the two housings can also result in one or more of the contacts becoming disoriented. For example, vibrational or other environmental forces can cause inadvertent disconnection of the contacts.
Therefore, there is a need for an electrical connector that is resistant to vibrational and rotational forces to prevent the unintentional disconnection of the electrical connector or otherwise compromise the stability of the interface between the electrical contacts.
The present invention addresses the shortcomings and limitations in the aforementioned related art attempts at preventing unintentional disconnection of an electrical connector by providing a high strength, vibration resistant, and anti-rotational wiring device assembly.